Sally Ann, Author at Sally Ann Hart

PBs ‘Frozen?’

15 March 2015

Categories: News, Protective Behaviours

For those of you who have attended Protective Behaviours training with me, you’ll hopefully be aware of how I love to find PBs in everyday experiences including popular songs, advertising, merchandise, film and even food and drink. For me, if the PB process were an item of confectionary it might be a Mars Bar, as in being there ‘when you work, rest and play’. If it were a ‘tipple’ it could perhaps be Martini, as in ‘any time, any place, anywhere’. And whenever I’m watching films, I often find myself pausing the action to make a note of the moment when PBs appears – my latest example comes courtesy of my PB Buddy, Judith Staff, who encouraged me to look again at the sequel to ‘Shrek’ and notice how in Chapter 2 the character Donkey practises the strategy of Persistence asking ‘are we there yet’ every few seconds, Shrek masks his feelings after Risking on Purpose and leaving the safety of his swamp to travel to Far, Far Away Land, which by the way is far, far away, adopting a brave face on and off throughout the journey and Unwritten Rules are in abundance surrounding a visit to new ‘in-laws’!

Another current favourite of mine is supplied, maybe unsurprisingly, by the film ‘Frozen’. I particularly love the way the colour blue now appears to have been ‘reclaimed’ by the female gender – this was highlighted at a recent little girl’s 5th birthday party I attended where an older female was questioning why the tablecloths were blue – ‘surely they’re for boys’ and it felt fab for me to hear the reply from one of the much younger females exclaiming – ‘no it’s Elsa Blue!’ And I also admitt to singing both aloud and to myself the song ‘Let it Go’ at times when feelings of exasperation could perhaps result in behaviours associated with a much younger Sally Ann.

So ‘thank you’ Walt Disney Animation Studios for providing more examples of PBs in action and, in my opinion, a very helpful Protective Interruption. I’m also feeling hopeful that current plans to produce a sequel will yield further example of PBs in action and more opportunities to sing aloud!

1st Purely Protective Behaviours Seminar!

22 February 2015

Categories: News

I’m feeling really excited about the prospect of working with my PB Buddy, Judith Staff to present, as far as I’m aware, the 1st ‘purely’ PBs Seminar. This follows on from our invitation to present the keynote speech and workshops to launch PBs at Cambridgeshire County Council’s Early Years Safeguarding Conference last month. And, as the feedback was so positive, we’ve decided to take this show ‘on the road’. Our first stop is Milton Keynes which feels a bit like bringing PBs ‘home’ to me as this was where Di Margetts arrived in the 1980s by invitation of Thames Valley Police to teach PBs.

Places are limited as we want everyone to experience everything on offer and come away with a resource that they can use straight away for themselves and all the people they share this planet with. Fuller details are on the flier and will keep you posted in terms of our next stop on our PB tour!

Oh for a ‘Dream Coracle’.

21 February 2015

Categories: News

I regularly receive emails from various companies advertising their goods and services and I think I’m pretty good at ‘clearing out my closet’ of those that are not what I’m interested in. One particular email that often arrives is from Community Playthings and the most recent one described their ‘Dream Coracle’ which to many may look like a wooden pet basket. I hope if you get the chance to check out the link above and spend a few minutes watching yet another, in my opinion, wonderful film produced by Siren Films, you’ll too be thinking like me and wishing you’d been offered the opportunity as a baby to crawl in and out whenever you recognised your mind and body wanted and/or needed time to rest. And how well that fits with PBs in terms of choice, control and time-limit? Perfect in my opinion as a baby has the choice to crawl in or not, has control of what he or she can do while in the Dream Coracle including what to take in or leave out and can climb out again when ready to wake up. Sounds like a really safe place to me 🙂

Wishing you all sweet dreams zzzzzzzzzzzz

‘All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today.’

31 January 2015

Categories: News, Protective Behaviours

Just under 10 years ago, I co-trained a 2 day Foundation course in Protective Behaviours with Fiona Benjamin in a place called Over which, for those of you who don’t know, is in Cambridgeshire. I had recently moved to the county and couldn’t work out why no one seemed to have heard of PBs. I didn’t want the county I now lived in not to know about it, so some PB seeds were sown…BUT….no one appeared to nurture them despite numerous efforts to build a PB network.

Then, a few months ago I was contacted by someone also, coincidentally, called Fiona and a new Cambridgeshire PB adventure began. So far Fiona and I have met to talk about how PBs fits beautifully with the Early Years Foundation Stage, Safeguarding and when taught, empowers pre-school children to keep themselves feeling safe. Fiona also joined me on my Dublin adventure and completed Foundation Stage training. She helped me identify the people within Cambridgeshire County Council whose job it is to provide workforce development training. So, for me the fantastic news is that almost 10 years after the first PB course in Over, two new courses are already booked, and on top of that I was invited to give the keynote address at this year’s Early Years Safeguarding Conference. This took place on Thursday 29th January 2015, and I would like to thank all those who attended for their enthusiastic feedback.

It looks as though the seeds that were planted last week stand a far greater chance of thriving, flowering and helping young children learn the skills they need to keep themselves feeling safe. It also confirms to me that the PB strategies of Persistence, Risking on Purpose and Network Review work beautifully whatever the climate and that people really do make a difference – thank you Fionas!

Feeling chuffed about 2015 and all it may bring

2 January 2015

Categories: News

Firstly I’d like to wish you all the very best in terms of health and happiness for 2015. I’m already feeling really chuffed about just how much PB work is in the diary including another trip to Eire and maybe even adventures further afield.

And I’d also like to share with you that it looks like I will be working much closer to home in 2015 because Cambridgeshire County Council is now looking at ways to provide Protective Behaviours training to all those that work with children, young people and adults across the county. For me this starts with giving the keynote address at the Early Years Safeguarding Conference on 29th January alongside my fab PB Buddy, Judith Staff. Judith is also leading workshops to illustrate how PBs can be used to hear, record and communicate the ‘voice of the child. I’m offering another workshop on the Language of Safety with a view to rewriting personal scripts in order to empower and enhance relationships. The first two Foundation Courses for the County Council look likely to be held in March – please feel free to watch this space for further details.

Another reason I’m feeling so chuffed, and it may sound like a really trivial reason to some, is that I’ve recycled my ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ calendar from 2014 by laminating the illustrations so they can be used with people to highlight the PB process in action. After all, choosing to go on a ‘ bear hunt’ in the first place is definitely an example of risking on purpose in my opinion. And I could encourage individuals to protectively interrupt and turn back any time they want.

And as for the bear, surely he has the right to feel safe too!

Looking forward to a 2015 filled with lots of opportunities to practice PBs and share it with as many people as possible. Hoping too that you might be part of the adventure 🙂

Schools ‘told’ to build Resilience and Character!

7 December 2014

Categories: News

Wow – that sounds like a directive to me!
And perhaps another wonderful opportunity to acknowledge all that Protective Behaviours can bring to any individual regardless of age or stage of development.

Despite the fact that the Protective Behaviours process was originally designed to equip young people with the skills needed to keep themselves feeling safe, I feel so chuffed to say the process has evolved over time to do so much more than that. And I recently updated my training resources to reflect this and highlight that the PB process when practised:

Leads to self-empowerment
Builds resilience & self esteem
Helps people see people as people and therefore avoids people seeing themselves or others as victims or any other label
Results in non-violent individuals, families and communities
Satisfies the need for fun and excitement without violence and fear

So I think it would be wonderful if more people discovered PBs and those who have already done so shared their knowledge with ‘others’ – and you never know this might be a way to get in the ear of those who currently make so many decisions on our behalf.

Personally, I’m looking forward to a New Year filled with Protective Behaviours as in recent months the requests for PB training has really taken off – so I’m already feeling excited about 2015 and all the opportunities that appear to be on the horizon. 🙂

Exciting times PB-wise

7 November 2014

Categories: News, Protective Behaviours

Feeling amazed that it’s been a fair few months since my last post – time certainly does fly for me when having fun!

So to catch up, I’m just back from what felt like an amazing week in Dublin PB-ing with a group of passionate, energetic and playful group who work with people that certainly find it tricky to feel safe. And the enthusiasm for learning and applying the Protective Behaviours process felt fantastic. Our work together totally subscribed to the fact that serious work can be done whilst having fun. Thank you so much for all the laughter and also listening when I asked you to stop because laughing so much started to hurt.

(Also had a less than fun experience back in England and once again the PB process provided the framework for safe feelings to return).

Looking ahead for the next 6 months, there’s so much more in both full view and on the horizon and it all involves PBs at either a practitioner and/or trainer level. So I apologise now for not keeping my posts more up to date, but promise to do my best to keep in touch and share the good news.

And, if I don’t get back here as often as I’d like to, there’s always lots of action on the PBPeople website – well worth a visit in my opinion 😆